The Radical Child

Ad Caelum per Aspera

When Xseed translated and released the first installment of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky trilogy, developed by Nihon Falcom, my expectations were not high since it was a franchise alien to me. However, I enjoyed it to the point of playing its direct sequel, which would take years to translate. Unfortunately, given the extensive gap between localizations, I didn’t get around to the third and final entry of the trilogy, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd, until the turn of the decade, and I would discover later they would connect with the Trails of Cold Steel games, a few of which I had experienced in the interim, leading me to replay the larger Trails series from scratch.

3rd follows Septian Church agent Kevin Graham, spirited to an otherworldly dimension alongside characters from the previous two games that come into the otherworld throughout the third entry, with different kinds of ethereal doors allowing players to view intricate backstory, unlocked by having certain characters in the party or fulfilling certain conditions. Given my experience with the first two entries, the structure of the third game was a nice break, with excellent worldbuilding and resolution overall. However, players must have paid close attention to the preceding two games’ narratives, preferably experienced immediately beforehand, to make total sense of the plot.

As with its precursors, Xseed did a good job with the translation, rife with legible dialogue free of spelling and grammatical errors, although akin to most Japanese RPGs, odd onomatopoeia abounds, alongside occasional anachronisms such as calling a day of the week “Friday” in a game devoid of Norse mythology, and some unusual names for characters such as Logic.

With maybe a few exceptions (such as new turn effect panels), 3rd is mechanically like the first two games, with an initial choice of difficulty and the ability to import data from the preceding titles. Enemies are visible to encounter in the various areas of the otherworld, contact dictating how battles begin. Characters can wear different kinds of Orbments to use Arts, execute limit breaks called Crafts when accumulating enough points, and so on. The same positives and negatives recur, but like the first and second chapters, the turbo mode makes things go by swifter, and levels rise fast, accounting for enjoyable gameplay.

Control also remains solid, with the ability to save mostly anywhere (except in battle) returning, alongside the turbo mode that can make cutscenes and nonbattle gameplay transpire more quickly, the easy menus, the clear direction, unproblematic shopping, maps for most areas, and the like. The only real issues include some unskippable text and the need at one point to play the Steam Deck portably to select menu options, incidentally, at the same place in a revisited map. Still, 3rd interacts well with players.

You won't see much Bracer Guild action in 3rd.

Though part of a trilogy, 3rd features plenty of original music from the Falcom sound team, all sounding superb. However, there are occasional silent moments, and mileage may vary as to the quality of the voicework in battle, which players can luckily toggle off.

The visuals remain largely unchanged from the first and second games, inheriting most negatives and positives. The former includes the scenery textures seeming blurry at points and mileage varying about the chibi character sprites. The good aspects include the stellar-looking cel-shaded FMVs, the battle effects, fluid animation, the pretty environments, the cool three-dimensional effects, and so forth, which still make the game look nice even today.

The conclusion will last players for around as long as its precursors, especially if they utilize the turbo mode, somewhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with plenty to boost playtime, including unlocking all the otherworld’s backstory-revealing doors and unlocking every Steam Achievement. A New Game+, as in the first and second entries, becomes available upon finishing a playthrough, with the adjustable difficulty and dialogue variations dependent upon whom the player has in their active party bolstering lasting appeal.

Ultimately, I don’t regret the time I spent with the Trails in the Sky trilogy, with my accidental discovery when replaying the first game of the turbo mode making the games go by quicker and enhancing their enjoyability, particularly regarding the game mechanics. The control remains solid, particularly with the ability to record progress anywhere outside battle and make most cutscenes fly by with the mentioned turbo mode. While the narrative of the trilogy in its third installment takes different turns, it culminates, alongside great audiovisual presentation, in a satisfying conclusion that makes me more than willing to play the Crossbell and Erebonia subseries of the Trails franchise, and I can’t recommend the Liberl plot arc of the Trails in the Sky games enough.

This review is based on a single playthrough of a digital copy purchased by the reviewer, downloaded to his Steam Deck, played on a television through the Steam Deck's dock, played on the Easy difficulty setting, and with 10/26 Achievements unlocked.